Chapter Five

Natasha walked up to the main office of the shelter and knocked on the open door. The shelter was an old church, the nave had been converted into a mess hall, full of tables. There were a few people there, eating but the kitchen was currently closed.

"Hello?" the tiny blonde woman at the desk asked, looking Natasha over. "Can I help you?" Natasha could see the assumptions in the other woman's mind: volunteer, or looking for someone, Natasha was too well dressed to be there for shelter.

"Natalie Reece, the letter about volunteering said to come today." Natasha gave the woman a cheery smile.

"Of course. I'm Tonia. It's wonderful to have you here. Come with me, I'll give you a tour." At once Tonia was all smiles as well, bustling around and out of the door with Natasha in tow.

Juliette wasn't there, she had gone out into the streets to see if she could find someone who knew about the disease. Natasha wished she was, a storm was brewing outside and it would rain soon. Not that Juliette minded, she was sued to rain. The threat of pneumonia, as Tonia started to point out as they passed through the shelter, was incredibly high that night.

"Here, we're about to start serving dinner. There's a hairnet in the box over there, it's as good a time as any to start." Natasha did as she was told, looking at the people lining up for food. No Juliette, or anyone who looked like they were having a fit. Natasha served bowl after bowl of stew, looking at each face for a glimpse of wide green eyes. Dinner took two hours, then Natasha and the other kitchen staff were faced with loading the hundred or so plates into huge dishwashers.

"There's another one gone," a middle aged man said as he walked into the kitchen. "She came in and collapsed, she was dead before we'd even crossed the room." He wiped his forehead as someone handed him a mug of coffee.

"What's going on?" Natasha asked, feigning ignorance. "Who's died?"

"A teenage girl, I didn't even have time to ask her name. She's the third person who's died of a fit in the last two days. The other two went into comas though." The man sighed as he leaned against the counter.

"They're not related though; it's just a string of bad luck. These poor people come in all the time with colds and infections, or diseases they can't afford to treat," Tonia said with a frown. "It's terrible." Natasha noted the symptoms, she had already read them out in the plane.

Natasha left the shelter an hour later, making her way back through the rain to the tiny flat that posed as her safe house. She had glanced in the infirmary, but there was no one who matched the symptoms in there. Neither Tonia nor Martin, the resident doctor knew anything about the deceased except the first two names.

She was wet through by the time she got back to the flat, stripping off to shower as soon as she locked the door. Juliette had apparently opted to spend the night on the streets, and Natasha hoped her night of rain would turn up something useful. She took the computer out to check in with Hill.

"The shelter I went to has had three deaths so far, but they're not convinced they're related at all," Natasha said as soon as the screen came up. She couldn't see Hill's face, just a blank test call screen for security reasons.

"The authorities are beginning to become aware of it, as of yet there hasn't been a new broadcast. We have a team of doctors working on three cases to find the cause of infection. Check back in in twenty four hours." The screen vanished leaving no record of the call at all.

Natasha's phone went off in the early hours, waking her up. She looked around, satisfied that she was safe and answered it before the second ring.

"Tasha." Juliette's voice was back to her normal accent, even if it was hushed against the background noise of pouring rain.

"Juliette."

"Ever heard of Dr Snow and the cholera outbreak in London?" Natasha frowned, looking at the darkened wall of her bedroom.

"No. What have you found? It's in the water?"

"He found that cholera was transmitted by water because he mapped every outbreak. One side of a block has no casualties but the next street has a dozen."

"Water sources?" Natasha didn't quite understand where Juliette was going with that.

"No, it's not food sources either, or airborne. I'm just saying, whatever it is, it's only hitting people in the same areas. You're in a better position to look into this than I am. There's got to be some areas more heavily affected than others."

"I'll check up on that. Are you alright?"

"It's only raining, Tasha, reminds me of home." Natasha smirked slightly. "I'll stop by tomorrow. Sleep well." The phone went dead and Natasha lay back down. She had been foolish for thinking Juliette would mind the weather. At least there weren't any signs of her becoming ill as well.

The next morning found Natasha back at the shelter, the bright morning sun made the wet streets shine as she looked out of the window.

"Natalie!" Tonia ran up to her, looking tired and Natasha could see stress written all over her small face. "Could you come and help in the infirmary?" Natasha followed into the sickroom, two rows of bed separated by curtains stretched out along the narrow room. It could have done with some windows and a bit of air freshener. Of the twelve beds, six were occupied and the curtains were pulled around a seventh. Two of the six were asleep, bowls near their heads.

"They had too much to drink last night, and to smoke," Tonia whispered. "It's these four we need help with." Natasha looked at the four other beds. A tall man was in the process of having a silent fit, being held down by Martin and a braided woman. Natasha frowned; the other three appeared to be unconscious.

"There's an ambulance on the way," Tonia told Martin before turning to Natasha. "He came in fifteen minutes ago, those three were a bit twitchy yesterday, we kept them in here as a precaution. They should wake up soon." Natasha walked along the line of beds, not sure how to tell Tonia that one of them wasn't waking up. She checked their pulses.

"Tonia-"

"Gone? I said they were all the same. The paramedics don't believe me, they explain everything away. No one cares." Martin had a deep scowl, ignoring Tonia's protests. "There's got to be some sort of infection going on, but the hospitals won't help. They keep saying they're coincidences. Heart disease and other problems are widespread in the homeless population, they don't think it's anything new."

Natasha looked at the small pale face of the girl lying unconscious on the bed in front of her. The girl couldn't have been more than twenty, her dark hair lay limply around her face. Natasha refused to draw the visible similarities with Juliette.

"Natalie, could you put the curtains up around that poor man, please?" Martin nodded towards the dead third man and she pulled the curtains around his bed before helping to try and settle the fitting man down. Eventually he slipped into unconsciousness and from the look on Martin's face, Natasha could guess there wasn't much chance of him waking up. "They think it's drugs, that's the excuse we got yesterday. There's nothing being done."

"Have the other shelters had the same thing?" Natasha asked carefully. Martin nodded.

"I think we'll be alright here for a bit, you should go and help Tonia with breakfast." Natasha left him and went back to the kitchen. Face after hopeless cold face passed, accepting their bowls of porridge with murmurs of thanks. Finally Natasha saw mahogany curls escaping from underneath a shabby hat and in the split second during which she held out the porridge bowl Juliette winked at her before moving on.

"Cheers," she said quietly then Natasha was faced with the queue of strangers again.